Drewry: Red Sea Crossings in Rapid Decline in International Shipping News 27/03/2026 Drewry’s Red Sea Diversion Tracker delivers timely intelligence to shippers, carriers, ports and other stakeholders on the evolving structure of carrier networks in the region. This tracker page will be updated fortnightly (every other Tuesday). Following the 28 February start of the Iran/Middle East conflict, the number of containerships sailing via the Suez Canal is now in rapid decline, according to the Red Sea Diversion Tracker. In the 2-week period ended 22 March, 43 containerships transited through Suez, down 33% from 64 transits in the 2-week period ended 8 March. Of the 43 containerships, 19 were owned by China and Hong Kong-based shipowners, who are able or willing to risk sailing in this risky region, in Drewry’s opinion. After the start of the Iran conflict on 28 February, the major carriers have announced the suspension of Asia-Europe services sailing all the way through the Red Sea, but some continue to use the Suez Canal to serve at least part of the Red Sea. In the latest 2-week period, CMA CGM and MSC were the only carriers which sent ships of more than 8,000teu capacities through the Suez Canal, Drewry AIS tracking shows. Maersk now appears to send only small containerships via the Suez Canal, likely due to risk factors. Meanwhile, the number of vessels sailing around the Cape of Good Hope rose 4% to 326 in the 2-week period ended 22 March , up from 314 in the previous fortnight. The Cape still remains by far the main route to connect Asia and Europe and a wholesale return to the Suez route seems increasingly remote. Drewry provides updated forecasts of container traffic demand, bunker prices and freight rates in the Drewry Container Forecaster, including rational scenarios to consider in planning. Drewry is tracking 5 indicators which enable stakeholders to monitor the progress of the return to the Suez Canal in its Container Capacity Insight: “Best case” Asia-Europe transit times, Port congestion (vessel waiting times), Import dwell times, Schedule reliability and Carrier capacity. Source: Drewry 2026-03-27 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share